National Intelligence Agency director general Billy Masetlha has bemoaned the effects of his suspension on his family, colleagues and the public. ”My family, including my aged mother and many other relatives, are deeply distressed by my purported suspension,” he said in a sworn affidavit before the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday.

Suspended National Intelligence Agency director general Billy Masetlha filed an urgent application in the Pretoria High Court on Monday in a bid to secure his legal rights in a running probe into misconduct. Masetlha was told on Thursday that the inspector general of intelligence wanted to interview him on Tuesday.

No stone will be left unturned in the search for the truth behind alleged abuses in the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), President Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday. Mbeki urged members of the country’s intelligence services to aid inquiries, led by the inspector general and minister of intelligence, into these ”disturbing matters”.

National Intelligence Agency director general Billy Masetlha’s application to have his suspension overturned was removed from the Pretoria High Court’s urgent roll on Tuesday and postponed indefinitely. Masetlha’s attorney, Imraan Haffegee, said his client will no longer pursue the matter in the form of an urgent application.

National Intelligence Agency director general Billy Masetlha is to pursue legal action in a bid to have his suspension overturned, his lawyer Imraan Haffegee said on Thursday. He would not divulge the exact nature of the intended action. ”I have sent a letter to my opponents [attorneys for Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils and President Thabo Mbeki] proposing a way forward,” Haffegee said.

Suspended National Intelligence Agency director general Billy Masetlha intends asking the Pretoria High Court next week for an order to reinstate him. Masetlha would bring an urgent application seeking the setting aside of what he considers an unlawful suspension, his attorney Imraan Haffegee said on Tuesday.

The African National Congress noted ”with pain” the Pretoria High Court’s dismissal on Friday of an appeal by politician Tony Yengeni against a fraud conviction and four-year sentence. The party will continue giving Yengeni moral and political support, it added. The African Christian Democratic Party said Yengeni should be thankful his sentence was not increased.

A four-year jail term imposed on fraudster politician Tony Yengeni ”errs significantly on the side of leniency”, the Pretoria High Court found on Friday in dismissing his appeal against conviction and sentence. An effective five-year sentence would have been more appropriate, judges Eberhard Bertelsmann and Ferdi Preller said.